The ability to manipulate and control the evolution of shear flows has tremendous potential for influencing system performance in diverse technological applications, including: mixing and combustion processes, lift and drag of aerodynamic surfaces, and thrust management. That these flows are dominated by the dynamics of a hierarchy of vortical structures, evolving as a result of inherent hydrodynamic instabilities (e.g., Ho & Huerre, 1984), suggests control strategies based on manipulation of these instabilities by the introduction of small disturbances at the flow boundary. A given shear flow is typically extremely receptive to disturbances within a limited frequency band and, as a result, these disturbances are rapidly amplified and can lead to substantial modification of the base flow and the performance of the system in which it is employed.
There is no question, that suitable actuators having fast dynamic response and relatively low power consumption are the foundation of any scheme for the manipulation and control of shear flows. Most frequently, actuators have had mechanically moving parts which come in direct contact with the flow [e.g., vibrating ribbons (Schubauer & Skramstad J. Aero Sci. 14 1947), movable flaps (Oster & Wygnanski, 1982), or electromagnetic elements (Betzig AIAA, 1981)]. This class of direct-contact actuators also includes piezoelectric actuators, the effectiveness of which has been demonstrated in flat plate boundary layers (Wehrmann 1967, and Jacobson & Reynolds Stan. U. TF-64 1995), wakes (Wehrmann Phys. Fl. 8 1965, 1967, and Berger Phys. Fl. S191 1967), and jets (Wiltse & Glezer 1993). Actuation can also be effected indirectly (and, in principle, remotely) either through pressure fluctuations [e.g., acoustic excitation (Crow & Champagne JFM 48 1971)] or body forces [e.g., heating (Liepmann et al. 1982, Corke & Mangano JFM 209 1989, Nygaard and Glezer 1991), or electromagnetically (Brown and Nosenchuck, AIAA 1995)].
Flow control strategies that are accomplished without direct contact between the actuator and the embedding flow are extremely attractive because the actuators can be conformally and nonintrusively mounted on or below the flow boundary (and thus can be better protected than conventional mechanical actuators). However, unless these actuators can be placed near points of receptivity within the flow, their effectiveness degrades substantially with decreasing power input. This shortcoming can be overcome by using fluidic actuators where control is effected intrusively using flow injection (jets) or suction at the boundary. Although these actuators are inherently intrusive, they share most of the attributes of indirect actuators in that they can be placed within the flow boundary and require only an orifice to communicate with the external flow. Fluidic actuators that perform a variety of "analog" (e.g., proportional fluidic amplifier) and "digital" (e.g., flip-flop) throttling and control functions without moving mechanical parts by using control jets to affect a primary jet within an enclosed cavity have been studied since the late 1950's (Joyce, HDL-SR 1983). Some of these concepts have also been used in open flow systems. Viets (AIAA J. 13 1975) induced spontaneous oscillations in a free rectangular jet by exploiting the concept of a flip-flop actuator and more recently, Raman and Cornelius (AIAA J. 33 1995) used two such jets to impose time harmonic oscillations in a larger jet by direct impingement.
More recently, a number of workers have recognized the potential for MEMS (micro eclectro mechanical systems) actuators in flow control applications for large scale systems and have exploited these devices in a variety of configurations. One of a number of examples of work in this area is that of Ho and his co-investigators (e.g., Liu, Tsao, Tai, and Ho, 1994) who have used MEMS versions of `flaps` to effect flow control. These investigators have opted to modify the distribution of streamwise vorticity on a delta wing and thus the aerodynamic rolling moment about the longitudinal axis of the aircraft.